The Australian dollar is down against the US dollar on Friday.
Overwhelming the move lower in the currency on Friday was a function of US dollar strength. The Aussie had a brief lift when Us non-farm payrolls came in worse than expected by the dollar soon took over, leading against most major currencies.
The denial from White house economic advisor Larry Kudlow that the US was considering rolling back tariffs against China was a negative for the Aussie, which counts China as its biggest customer.
Australian dollar versus US dollar was lower by 65 pips (-1.07%) to 0.5993 with a daily range of 0.5980 to 0.6076 as of 6pm GMT.
AUD/USD dipped below the key 0.60 level having failed earlier in the week to make much headway beyond 0.61. Losses for the week now total -2.79%.
Australian dollar slides back below 0.60
The Australian dollar fell along side Australian and Asian stock markets and added to daily losses in the afternoon amid a mixed set of economic data from the United States.
Mixed might be generous. The ISM March non-manufacturing index came in at 52.5 versus the 43.0 expected. On first glance that might have explained strength in the dollar but a look at the details of the report and it was far from good news.
A jump in supplier deliveries (to 61.1 from 52.9 last time) explained most of the positive surprise. New orders crashed to 52.9 from 63.1, business activity fell to 48.0 from 57.8, New export orders nosedived to 45.9 from 55.6. One quote from the Real Estate sector gave a good summary of the current state of affairs in the US service sector. “The coronavirus is effecting every aspect of business.”
US dollar rallies as a haven despite poor data
White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow didn’t outright deny the possibility of removing tariffs on Chinese imports, but came close by saying “pulling tariffs would send the wrong signal on trade policy.” There is some political calculus here that probably trumps economic sense. Many Americans are incensed with China for as they see it causing the outbreak and don’t want to see any benefit to the country that they perceive has caused such misery.
